Description: One of the most personal films by Guillermo del
Toro, The Devil’s Backbone is also among his most
frightening and emotionally layered. Set during the final
week of the Spanish Civil War, it tells the tale of a
twelve-year-old boy who, after his freedom-fighting father
is killed, is sent to a haunted rural orphanage full of
terrible secrets. Del Toro expertly combines gothic ghost
story, murder mystery, and historical melodrama in a stylish
mélange that, like his later
Pan’s Labyrinth, reminds us the scariest monsters
are often the human ones.

The Film:

Guillermo del Toro, who quickly became one of the most talked-about
directors in contemporary horror films with his first two features,
Chronos and Mimic, takes on a more subtle tale of terror with this
psychological suspense piece. Casares (Federico Luppi) and Carmen
(Marisa Paredes) operate a small home for orphans in a remote part of
Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Helping the couple mind the
orphanage are Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega), the groundskeeper, and Conchita
(Irene Visedo), a teacher who is also involved with Jacinto. Casares and
Carmen are aligned with the Republican loyalists, and are hiding a large
cache of gold that's used to back the Republican treasury; perhaps not
coincidentally, the orphanage has also been subject to attacks from
Franco's troops, and an unexploded bomb waits to be defused in the
home's courtyard. One day, a boy named Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives
at the home, looking for a place to stay after being left behind by his
parents. Casares and Carmen take him in, and the boy soon strikes up an
unlikely friendship with Jaime (Inigo Garces), a boy with a reputation
for tormenting other kids. But Carlos soon begins having visions of a
mysterious apparition he can't identify, and hears strange stories about
a child named Santi who went missing the day the bomb appeared near the
orphanage.

A classy Hispanic horror pic written and directed by the Mexican
cinephile who made Cronos and
Mimic. Like many Spanish movies about the
Civil War, it filters that traumatic conflict through the partly
comprehending eyes of a child. After his Republican father dies in
battle, 10-year-old Carlos (Tielve) is left in a desert orphanage, where
crippled widow Carmen (Paredes) and kindly Professor Casares (Luppi)
hope to protect their charges from advancing Fascists. But danger exists
inside the fragile sanctuary, too - not only does Carlos clash with
older bully Jaime, but there's surly, self-serving janitor Jacinto
(Noriega) to worry about, not to mention chilling rumours about a kid
who went missing. If only for its technical aspects, this would rate as
a pleasurably superior supernatural psychological thriller, with
polished but subtle special effects, painterly, atmospheric
cinematography and vivid performances from a top-notch cast. What lifts
it, however, is an adept use of generic elements as a
poetic/metaphorical gloss on political and historical realities. Hence a
ghost mystery becomes a tale of opposing forces building to a deadly,
explosive denouement in which concealed passions finally burst forth.

Image : NOTE:The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.

The Devil's Backbonelooks beautiful
on
Blu-ray
from Criterion. This is described as a 'new,
restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director
Guillermo del Toro and director of photography Guillermo
Navarro...' and it looks just marvelous. Colors appear strong and tight
- contrast is sublime. This
is dual-layered with a high bitrate and it
appears to be a magnificent representation of the film with
texture and depth. It is in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio
and detail is impressive. They are frequent examples of
depth. This
Blu-ray
has no discernable flaws and supplies a perfect 1080P
presentation.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Audio :

There is a super atmospheric DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround track at 3414
kbps in original Spanish. It has both subtle and aggressive separations
- the score by Javier Navarrete substantially benefits from the lossless
rendering enhancing the spooky aura created by the visuals. The track
has punchy depth and a crisp high-end.

There are
optional English subtitles, translation by del Toro, and my Oppo
has identified
it as being a region 'A' disc.

Extras :

Criterion have
included the 2004 director's commentary as found on the previous SE DVD
of the film. Previous supplements as well are a short 2010 video
introduction by Del Toro, the half-hour making-of documentary entitled
¿Que es un fantasma? (What is a Ghost?), from 2004, the
selected on-screen presentation of Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches - an
inspiration for the visual texture of certain sequences in the film.
When this is selected del Toro's thumbnail sketches will appear in
conjunction with their corresponding scenes as the film plays (subtitle
default OFF when this is selected.) Repeating from previous digital
edition are the four deleted scenes, with commentary by del Toro, the
Javier Soto interactive gallery "Director's Notebook" from 2010
and the 12-minute program comparing Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches and
Carlos Giménez’s storyboards with the final film. Criterion also add new
material including about 3/4 of an hour's worth of 2 new and one
archival interview with del Toro and a new 15-minute interview with
scholar Sebastiaan Faber about the film’s depiction of the Spanish Civil
War There is also a trailer and liner notes booklet with an essay by
critic Mark Kermode.

BOTTOM LINE: Guillermo del Toro's films are so visually rich with much of the
story and emotion told through the descriptive
cinematography. His work is very memorable. The Devil's
Backbone is no
exception. This is a hauntingly beautiful, chilling movie
and the Criterion
Blu-ray package offers a fabulous a/v presentation with plenty of
important extras. This has plenty of value and we strongly
recommend!

Gary Tooze

July 12th, 2013

About the Reviewer:
Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film
since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was
around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my
horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out
new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500
DVDs and have reviewed over 5000 myself. I appreciate my
discussion Listserv for furthering my film
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Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction.